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One of the Centers for Disease Control's top five biological terrorism agents, the tularemia bacteria, has been detected in air monitors in San Jose but public health officials do not believe it is the result of any type of terrorist attack. The Francisella tularensis bacteria was found in an air-monitoring station in San Jose on Sunday morning. However, a subsequent test this morning at the same station found no evidence of the bacteria and no other stations in the area showed evidence of it, according to the Santa Clara County Public Health Department. "It is likely that the positive test...

A power failure knocked out the security system at a federal germ lab in Fort Collins for 13 hours Monday and disabled freezers housing thousands of vials of plague and other potential bioweapons. A backup generator kicked on when the power failed. But an electrical short prevented the backup power from being routed through the building, said Colorado State University spokesman Brad Bohlander. As a result, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory was without power for 13 hours, beginning at 3:07 p.m. Monday, Bohlander said. CSU owns the building and leases it to the government.No germ collections were...

tularemia has been long used as a military biological weapon. We should consider the presence of tularemia a shot across the bow to the peace movement from an administration willing to cheat, steal, torture, lie and kill to further its political agenda. Karl Rove, the president’s brain, brags of his worship of Machiavelli and will do anything to keep his Texas prince in power...........What do we make of the Saturday, October 1 Washington Post headline “Poison Found in Air During Anti-War Protest”? Washington D.C. Public Health Director Greg A. Pane posed the right question in the Post article, “Why that...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Small amounts of a bacteria that causes "rabbit fever" were found on Washington's National Mall last weekend as thousands of protesters marched against the Iraq War, U.S. health authorities said on Saturday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said several government environmental air monitors in the Mall area detected low levels of Francisella tularensis bacteria that cause Tularemia, commonly known as rabbit fever, on September 24-25.

Tularemia Outbreak in Russia – Might Have Been Natural A recent outbreak –over 400 cases of Tularemia – occurred in Russia during July and August. The sheer number of cases – as compared to prior years – seemed alarming ; as did the proximity of the cases to Russian biowarfare research facilities. (There were even cases in Sverdlosk – site of an Anthrax accident many years ago. ) It is well to be suspicious of coincidence ; but equally important to make sure all facts are in hand before drawing conclusions. In researching Tularemia “episodes” a few days ago, I...

Tularemia Outbreak in Russia –443 Cases-Origins Unknown The ProMed site carried a report this morning concerning a Tularemia outbreak in Russia –updated to 08/29/05. The ProMed heading says 334 cases have been reported, but simple arithmetic shows the number to be 443. Breakdown follows: 135 Moscow (Shatursky District) 99 Nizhny Novgorod 83 Vladimir region ( Gorohovetsky) 67 Ryazan 28 Voronezh 29 Sverdlosk region 2 Yekaterinburg 443 Total Laboratory confirmation has been obtained in 128 of the cases,so far. (This is important, because influenza can cause similar symptoms , and there has been extensive migration of infected/infectious wildfowl into much of...

Biowarfare : Another “Sverdlosk Incident” in Russia ? I’ve been looking at two recent (and ongoing) outbreaks of Tularemia in Russia: (Source: ProMed : Archives # 20050824.2503; # 20050822.2467; # 20050718.2066 ) 1. 96 people –66 from Dzerzhinsk region; 30 from Nizhniy Novogorod. 2. 56 people – all from the Ryazan area , which borders on Nizhniy Novogorod and Vladimir. What makes it notable is that Tularemia is a fairly rare disease: the Ryazan area had only 4 known cases in 2004. (No historic stats were furnished on the Nizhniy Novgoros area or Dzerzhinsk , but the number of cases...

Rats spread the disease in German troops very quickly. The effect was astonishing: Tulameria, or rabbit fever is reputed to be a record-breaking infection. Humans will most likely conquer the disease in the near future: scientists have recently decoded the genome of Francisella tularensis microbe. Only ten of these bacteria are enough to cause an extremely dangerous disease. Western specialists believe that the microbe can be used as a very effective biological weapon, for it possesses an inhalational capacity. The microbe was discovered in 1911 during an outburst of rabbit fever, when the disease killed a large number ground squirrels...

<p>BOSTON — The revelation last week that a laboratory slip-up led three Boston University scientists to become infected with tularemia, a flulike disease sometimes referred to as "rabbit fever," has fueled criticism of a plan to build a state-of-the-art research lab to study some of the world's most lethal germs in Boston's South End.</p>

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Pet hamsters are a potential source of serious infection, U.S. health officials warned on Thursday. Researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) (CDC) describe the case of a 3-year-old boy from Colorado who came down with tularemia after being bitten by a pet hamster. Tularemia is caused by the bug Francisella tularensis, which is one of the most infectious germs known and for that reason is considered a potential biologic terrorism agent. As outlined in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the boy's family purchased six hamsters...

Words of Wisdom About Gas, Germs, and Nukes By SFC Red Thomas, Armor Master Gunner U.S. Army (Ret) 10.19.01 Since the media have decided to scare everyone with predictions of chemical, biological, or nuclear warfare on our turf, I decided to write a paper and keep things in their proper perspective. I am a retired military weapons, munitions, and training expert. Lesson number one: In the mid 1990s there was a series of nerve gas attacks on crowded Japanese subway stations. Given perfect conditions for an attack, less than 10% of the people there were injured (the injured were better...

CDC Update: Tularemia Outbreak in Prairie Dogs in Texas Tuesday, August 06, 2002 4:15 PM Eastern US http://www.videonewswire.com/CDC/080602/event.html?id=7237